Recent recognition of the University of Washington includes France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Richard R. Ernst Prize for contributions to magnetic resonance, and a National Science Foundation CAREER award from the division of materials research.
UW professor named CNRS fellow-ambassador
Julian Olden, UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, was welcomed into the 2026 cohort of fellow-ambassadors by France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Active across all scientific fields for more than 80 years, CNRS is Europe’s largest fundamental research agency.
Launched in 2023, the CNRS Fellow-Ambassador program brings internationally recognized researchers to France to foster scientific collaboration. As one of nine members selected this year, Olden joins a group that includes Nobel laureates and other globally renowned researchers, with nearly 30 active fellow-ambassadors.
As part of the program, Olden will spend time in France over the next three summers, collaborating with scientists on research aimed at addressing sustainability challenges facing freshwater ecosystems.
The opportunity closely aligns with Olden’s broader research program, which focuses on advancing the science and practice of freshwater conservation. His work spans climate change, conservation biology, invasive species, and freshwater community ecology, with an emphasis on bridging fundamental research and practical conservation challenges through quantitative approaches.
Olden noted that France has long been home to some of the world’s most talented scientists.
“The opportunity to work alongside them—exchanging ideas, tackling shared challenges in freshwater sciences and building lasting research partnerships—is something I look forward to enormously,” Olden said.
Chemistry professor receives 2026 Richard R. Ernst Prize for contributions to magnetic resonance
Stefan Stoll, UW professor of chemistry, was one of four researchers awarded the 2026 Richard R. Ernst Prize in Magnetic Resonance, presented at the EUROMAR 2026 conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. The annual prize recognizes scientific achievements that expand the capabilities and impact of magnetic resonance.
Stoll was recognized for his contributions to electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) through widely adopted computational tools and data analysis methods, particularly EasySpin, software developed and maintained by Stoll and colleagues. The software has become a standard resource in magnetic resonance laboratories, allowing researchers to simulate and analyze complex EPR spectra.
EPR experiments produce signals that scientists use to learn about the structure and behavior of molecules and materials. EasySpin helps researchers interpret those signals by allowing them to model what an experiment should look like under different conditions and compare those simulations with real-world data. That capability supports research ranging from understanding how the structure and movement of proteins affect their function to studying molecular systems with potential applications in quantum sensing.
For Stoll, the award also brings attention to a part of the scientific process that can operate behind the scenes: developing and maintaining the software researchers rely on to do their work. He noted that although scientific software is essential to many research pipelines and workflows, securing federal or foundation funding for its development can be difficult.
“It’s very exciting for scientific software development to get some recognition,” Stoll said.
Stoll also credited the EasySpin user community with helping drive continued improvements to the software’s scope, performance, accessibility and usability.
UW professor of physics receives NSF CAREER Award to study electron interactions in quantum materials
Arthur Barnard, UW assistant professor of physics, received a 2026 National Science Foundation CAREER Award of more than $600,000 from the Division of Materials Research.
The NSF CAREER Award is the agency’s most prestigious honor for early-career faculty, recognizing those with the potential to become academic leaders in both research and education.
With the award, Barnard and his team will study how interactions between electrons give rise to unusual forms of electronic order in two-dimensional quantum materials, including superconducting states and electronic crystals. The researchers will use a new measurement technique developed in Barnard’s Classical and Quantum Nanosystems Lab that allows them to deliberately change how electrons interact while simultaneously measuring how the material responds.
In other words, rather than only observing the properties of a quantum material, Barnard’s team can adjust one of the forces shaping those properties and watch what changes. Understanding how these interactions produce behaviors such as superconductivity could help researchers learn how to more precisely control the electronic properties of materials, foundational knowledge for the development of future electronic and quantum technologies.
Barnard said his lab has spent the past several years developing what he described as a “one-of-a-kind tool” to help researchers better understand how superconductivity and other phenomena emerge in atomically thin materials.
“Now, with NSF CAREER funding, we are beginning to put this tool to work and looking forward to what we will discover,” Barnard said.
The project will also provide research training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and support the development of open-source hardware and STEM modules that offer hands-on experience with van der Waals material assembly and electronic measurements.